Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Minotaur 1 launched with PharmSat

From Lunar Pioneer
After a twenty minute hold, brought about by a wayward boat that strayed into waters downrange from Wallops Island, Orbital Science's Minotaur 1 showed its stuff at 19:55 ET.

On-board was the payload was NASA Ames' mini-satellite PharmSat, a breadbox-sized experiment to determine the effects of the near-Earth environment on certain pharmaceutical precursors.

"Grow yeasties, grow," Ames director Pete Wordan Twittered.

The lower show above, in this composite shows the how merciless the crosswinds must have been on the vehicle. The shot was taken approximately 220 kilometers to the south by southwest, not far from the coastal waters of North Carolina.

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